“Thank you, my loyal delegates of the toy-box district of Pug-Slope-ia, for gathering today around the King’s palace.  Some of you may not have been graced with my presence before, and to you I apologize.  But here I lie before you today, your prince, Siddhartha Lamont, Duke of Lamont, and one-day ruler of all territories within Pug-Slope-ia…

“As you may have heard, something strange is afoot in the kingdom.  A rumor has spread that my parents, the very strict and very treat-withholding King and Queen of Pug-Slope-ia, are embarking on a journey “Upstate” for approximately two days and two nights.   The rumor goes on to state that while they are gone, a woman named “Fun Aunt Liv” will be entering the King’s palace as a sort of surrogate authority, overseeing all walks, meal-times, treats and slumbers.  They’ve given ultimate power to this “Fun Aunt Liv” rather than entrusting their only son – me – to rule as he sees fit…

“As the rightful heir to the throne, I say ENOUGH with their dismissive attitude towards my ability to manage this kingdom and the out-dated and way-too-strict limitations they place on the amount and types of food I am allowed to eat.  I will not stand for this betrayal of the royal hierarchy, and I command that you, my loyal subjects, follow suit.  The uprising should be quick and painless, for, you see, I have met this “Fun Aunt Liv.” She once entered the kingdom while the King and Queen were away, immediately fed me a delicious meal, and promptly left the premises – all with nary a coercion to “go for a dreaded walk” or “sit in my throne while my food is prepared.”  Usurping her authority will not be difficult.”

“What will you ask of us, my lord?”

“Aye, good froggie, I am asking you, my dear, loyal subjects, to help me make this the weekend the oppression ends.  This will be the weekend we win the freedom to ingest everything we ever dreamed of ingesting – earphones, tea-light candles, paper towels, chapstick – tubes and tubes of chapstick!  Entire packages of flour tortillas.  Ear plugs.  Giant loaves of garlic bread.  Newman-O’s.  Twelve-gallon bins of kibble!  I see before me an entire army of my toys here in defiance of tyranny.  You have come to fight as free toys, and free toys you are.  What would you do without freedom?  Will you fight?”

“We are toys.  We can’t even eat food.  Why fight?  We will run and we will live.”

“Aye, good fish-sandwich toy, that is true.  Fight and you may die. Run and you’ll live — at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but THEY WILL NEVER TAKE OUR FREEDOM!!!”

(…crickets…)

“Seriously?”

“Eh…”

“Well, then, I banish thee!  I banish thee ALL back to the toy box!!  Good day to all of you!”

“But-“

“I said GOOD DAY!”

*****

Everybody please wish our incredibly brave friend Olivia the best of luck as she takes on the task of watching our beloved-yet-headstrong pug for the weekend.  She’s quite good with dogs and very familiar with Sid’s…hunger…for life, so hopefully the weekend will be relaxed, enjoyable, and free of canine mutiny!

Brian and Sid have apparently been waking very early every morning and going to Prospect Park.  Brian claims that he asks me – while I’m sleeping – if I want to go along with them, and that I say “no.”  And then he says that he says, “Are you sure?”  And supposedly I say, “yes.”  Then I wake up two hours later ready to roll and everybody’s already wiped out from all the fun they had in the park.

So, last evening, while I was wide awake, I told Brian that I absolutely wanted him to wake me up for Sid’s morning park time. And what a morning it was!  There was a crazy mist covering the entire long meadow, and the leaves have finally changed into their vibrant fall colors.  We didn’t have the good camera with us, so I whipped out my iPhone and took some Hipstamatics:

Brian and Sid walking near the ball fields.

On the Long Meadow, looking towards the dog beach.

Brian and Sid heading towards the Long Meadow

The mixture of sunlight, morning mist, and fall colors was so lovely that even an ol’ curmudgeon like Sid paused for an extra moment to take it all in:

I’d like to imagine that the expression on Sid’s face in the final photo on the bottom right is Sid having an epiphany about what really matters in life, but it’s more likely him realizing that all of this nature-gazing is delaying his treat time…

We here at PugSlope consider ourselves innovators in the realm of dog bed design. In Sid’s two and half year’s with us, he’s gone through probably 30 different bed designs. However, we actually only really purchased like 3 beds, as the 27 others were various combinations of the real dog bed combined with other household objects.

Today I’d like to feature a progression from December 2009 of what we referred to as the Mega-Bed.

Stage 1: The original concept started with a piece of finger-foam from a drum case that I had laying around. I didn’t actually propose Sid use it as a bed, he just noticed it one day, starting nesting, and then just plunked down on it.

Stage 2: A “Snoozzy” bed was added under the foam to create a bolster around the perimeter of the bed. As you guys are probably aware by now, Sid loves to rest his head on bolsters, so this was a well-received upgrade. We also added a pillow case on top because we were worried the direct contact with the foam might bother our bubble-dog‘s already allergy-sensitive skin.

Stage 3: Yes, we kept going! What’s better than a Snoozzy? Why, two, of course! Another Snoozzy, larger than the first, was added to the bottom to create an even more pronounced bolster around the bed’s perimeter. It also added more overall loft to the bed and reminded Sid of powdered donuts. And yes, that is a nyla-bone that Sid is snuggling with in that bottom photo. He considers them his children.

Stage 4: You thought we were done? Guess again. It was time to “go vertical”. We ditched the bottom Snoozzy and replaced it with a rubbermaid bin (very similar to Sid’s current Ela-bed!). Sid’s room-mate, Elly, was also a fan of the Mega-Bed at this stage.

Stage 5: Add a laundry basket? Wait, what?! Okay, we admit we may have lost it at this point. We ditched everything but the foam and pillow case, filled our laundry basket with various pillows and blankets, and then put the foam pad on top. You can also see one of Sid’s blankies peeking out. It is most definitely pink and the patch says “I Love You“. Sid wants me to be clear that we picked that out, not him.

So there you have it. Innovation or sheer lunacy? We’ll let you decide.

So, once Sid and Timothy had done their part to repair Shark / Penguin relations…

…it was time to take their halloween hoodies to the streets!

Now, I don’t know how familiar you are with the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, but it’s known as one of the kid-friendliest neighborhoods in the five boroughs of New York City.  Kids run this ‘hood.  So, at 3:30 in the afternoon, the streets were already PACKED with sugared-up robots, pirates and cowgirls.

Due to a number of considerations – such as Sid’s maniacal tendency to assume that EVERYTHING is a treat for HIM, the short stature of children and the correspondingly low height at which their tiny arms swing their bulging candy buckets, and my neuroses – we made a decision to avoid the ACTUAL trick-or-treaters on the main avenues and stick to some lesser-traveled streets and alleyways.  So, beyond the fact that Timothy is dressed as a penguin with a bowtie, and Sid is dressed as a shark, the photos from our adventure are not very halloweenie, and mostly involve a lot of walking.

Front view!

Top view!

Rump view!

Thanks to Saturday’s totally random pre-Halloween snowstorm, we were able to get a photo of Timothy Penguin in her native arctic habitat:

And although Sid didn’t get any candy, his treat was that we allowed him to spend some extra time sniffing, chewing, and spitting out the tiny leaves that he’s been OBSESSED with ever since the fall season began:

Lucky for us, Sid prefers leaf-foraging to pixie stix.  By the time we returned home we had one tired, happy shark-pug.

Sid was a shark.

Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking.  Does a shark hoodie that Sid already wears all the time really count as a Halloween costume?  Shouldn’t Brian and I, two seemingly creative people with endless time on our hands, be able to put together something a little more special?  Pug Vigoda, say?  Or Pugs Moleman?  Or Pugs Moleman dressed as Bart Simpson?

Well, what if we told you there was a matching PENGUIN in the house?

And what if we told you that Penguin’s name was TIMOTHY BUTTONS?!

That’s right.  A few weeks ago, we discovered that Timothy has a Penguin hoodie made by the same brand that makes Sid’s shark’s hoodie.  When fate presents you with a perfect marine-based halloween theme for your pug and his girlfriend, a theme which requires no output of money or effort, you listen to fate:

True, penguins and sharks don’t exactly get along in the wild:

File photo illustrating the universally-feared Great White Shark’s feelings of mild annoyance toward the universally-loved Emperor Penguin.

But Sid and Timothy used this opportunity to present an alternate reality – an aquatic utopia in which penguin and shark coexist harmoniously, like the yin and the yang of the sea:

In this utopia, when the shark licks the penguin, the penguin licks him right back:

In this utopia, sharks and penguins spend their evenings slow-dancing to the operatic wailing of the humpback whale:

In this utopia, sharks and penguins have mutually-beneficial, symbiotic goals; by working together to conquer the humans, the shark hopes to gain control of the treat supply while the penguin hopes to gain a better vantage point from which she can lick sharks:

But just when our aquatic utopia was becoming a reality, Sid overheard a small child on the street say “TRICK OR TREAT.” It was then that Sid put two and two together and realized that today was THE DAY when all of our neighbors were HANDING OUT TREATS.  FOR FREE.  And all that you needed to do to get these treats was WEAR A COSTUME.

The flap-flip of stubborn indignation was immediately deployed:

To be continued…